SF transit officials take out parking to make room for...

1of2A biker rides on Howard Street where a cyclist was killed last Friday after being struck by a vehicle in San Francisco, California, on Monday, March 11, 2019Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

2of2A biker rides on Howard Street where a cyclist was killed last Friday after being struck by a vehicle in San Francisco, California, on Monday, March 11, 2019Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

San Francisco transportation officials said Tuesday they will block parking and expand the bike lanes on a congested street in SoMa that drew intense scrutiny last week after a cyclist was crushed by a truck.

Officials will start by restricting parking on the north side of Howard Street, where Rothstein was killed. On Wednesday, they will paint stripes on the roadway and install barriers to keep some parking spaces closed.

These short-term measures are precursors to a more substantial redesign in April, when the agency expects to shift the geometry of the street so that cyclists are shielded by a lane of parked cars. The new protected bike path would run along Howard Street between Third and Sixth streets, connecting to a five-block segment between Sixth and Eleventh streets that the SFMTA built in December.

All of these groups found an ally in Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes SoMa. He said he’s received more than 300 emails since Friday calling for immediate action to transform Howard Street.

This needs to change immediately. It is unnecessary and dangerous to have a 6 lane road for cars like this. MTA should remove a lane and put a protected bike lane in the next 21 days and that is what I’m pushing them to do.

“I’m still getting about a dozen an hour,” Haney said in a text message Tuesday. He’s now pushing for faster triage, and said he hopes that by the end of next month, the Howard Street protected bike lane will stretch all the way to Embarcadero.

Rachel Swan covers transportation for The Chronicle. She joined the paper in 2015 and has also reported on politics in Oakland and San Francisco.

Previously, Rachel held staff positions at the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, where she covered technology, law and the arts. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.